Facebook says it removed 12 million pieces of fake news on Covid-19 globally

Facebook also said that it put warning labels on over 167 million posts marked as false by third-party fact-checkers.

Facebook (AP)

Facebook today said that it removed 12 million pieces of misinformation on the Covid-19 pandemic globally from its family of apps, which includes Facebook and Instagram.

The company also said that it put warning labels on over 167 million posts marked as false by third-party fact-checkers. The social media giant said that when people see warning labels, about 95% of the time they do not go on to view the original content.

In addition to this, Facebook said that in the coming weeks it would be rolling out a new campaign in India in a bid to educate and inform its users in India on ways to detect misinformation pertaining to the pandemic. The social media giant said that this endeavour will enable users to make qualified decisions about the information that they get online.

As a part of this campaign, the company will show tips and tricks to users via creative advertisements and link to a dedicated microsite, www.fightcovidmisinfo.com/india/ to get verified information. Facebook said that this campaign and the website will be rolled out in English and nine Indian languages, which includes Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Oriya, Malayalam, Marathi, Kannada, Gujarati and Bengali.

Lastly, Facebook said that it has also initiated a campaign in association with some of the leading doctors in the country. This campaign includes a series of 12 videos wherein doctors will address the most commonly asked questions on Covid-19. The video series titled ‘#DoctorKiSuno' will be available on https://www.facebook.com/FacebookIndia and it will cover various topics like Covid-19 in children, diabetes and Covid-19, the mental health impacts of Covid-19 among other things.